Remote work is a new working tactic that allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment. Nowadays remote staffing is a favorite trend for many organizations because it saves lots of budgets.
When you work or hire remote employees then working with them is increasingly simple with the help of collaboration tools that unite people who are physically separated but can be permanently connected, hold virtual meetings and share ideas and proposals.
But, sometimes, these workers perceive that they are left out of important conversations and activities that favor the creation of company culture. How to make remote employees feel part of the team?
It is fundamental that they are integrated and that this connection with the rest of the group, although distant and virtual, is appreciated as real and close. Let’s see how you can achieve it.
Remote work is a new working technique that allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment. Nowadays remote staffing is a favorite trend for many organizations because it saves money. Outsourcing refers to hiring a third party company or professional to work on a certain project on a contractual basis.
When you hire remote employees then working with them becomes simple with the help of collaboration tools that connects people who are otherwise physically separated. With an increase in digitization, the trend of outsourcing has increased tremendously because now we can connect with each other easily at any time and location.
However, workers may sometimes perceive that they are left out of important conversations and activities that are happening in a company. In order to make remote employees feel part of the team, it is essential that they should be involved in day-to-day activities feel connected with the rest of the group. It is also important to share the daily work reports regularly so that everybody is in sync.
Encourages effective communication
Although it may seem obvious, this is not always taken into account. If your employees work remotely it is essential to invest in the necessary tools to be sure that they feel connected and integrated.
But, in addition to facilitating their access, it must be put into practice. There will not be an efficient meeting if all the people who should be do not connect at the same time. You have to get a responsible team to find the most appropriate ways to promote communication and collaboration.
Organize visits
It is important that you make your remote staff visit the company’s headquarters from time to time. This face to face meeting will be very interesting to be able to carry out work sessions in person and establish more direct contact between those members who always collaborate in the distance.
Organize informal meetings, too, such as a team-building activity, lunch or dinner. Both inside and outside the office, you have to make everyone feel part of the team.
It is also important that you as the leader of a team visit the remote offices. It is not an inspection, and you should not feel that way, but you must be working remotely for a few days and making your employees face and skin that voice they hear on the other side of the computer or the telephone.
Make them relate
The best ideas come when they are spoken out loud. It can happen that your remote employees are working in the offices of other colleagues but if that person has the office in their own home the lack of conversation (both on labor issues and other aspects) could affect their creative capacity and plunge into a deep silence those ideas that need to sprout.
To improve this situation, check if it is possible that this team member has his office in a space where there are more people; On the one hand, you will differentiate your home from your work environment and, on the other hand, you will establish relationships with other people either in your own office or when you are in the coffee machine.
Promotes participation in local events
Look for creative ways for your remote workers to become representatives of your company in their respective places of origin. Encourage your participation in events, fairs, conferences or local networking sessions so they can make your business known.
This will make them internalize the mission and vision of the firm as their own and feel integrated into the culture of the company.
Creating these opportunities will make your remote staff come in contact with other people that may be interesting in the project in which you work and they will establish a much more intense bond with the company itself being the best ambassadors of the brand. And they will feel, with it, much more valued.
As you can see, making your remote employees feel part of the team is much easier than it seems. It is about integrating them from all possible points of view, both from the professional using collaboration tools so that you are efficiently connected from the most personal, favoring their social relationships and making them become a member of the company. And in an important one.
The greatest distances are sometimes not only physical, so take care of those workers when you hire offshore staff with whom you do not work side by side on a daily basis so that they do not feel a distance even greater than that of the kilometers that separate you.
